The present invention relates to an improved key mechanism for musical wind instruments, and more particularly relates to an improvement in construction of a key mechanism for musical wind instruments such as a saxophone.
The key mechanism of the above-described type generally includes a plurality of, more specifically four sets of, collectively arranged finger pieces of a substantially flat construction. Different finger pieces are for different tonal pitches. The finger pieces are arranged over the peripheral surface of a tube of the musical wind instrument.
In the following description, the side of the finger pieces adjacent to the tube surface will be referred to as "the rear side" whereas the side remote from the tube surface will be referred to as "the foreside".
The foreside surface of the finger pieces are substantially in a column plane tangential to the tube surface so that they can be operated, i.e. depressed, selectively by the left hand little finger point or tip of a player. The key mechanism further includes key arms for coupling the finger pieces to respective rotatable rods which are rotatably mounted to the tube surface.
For selective depression of the finger pieces, the little finger point needs to be shifted from piece to piece very quickly during performance of the instrument and, in most cases, this finger shifting has to be practiced without the player watching the key mechanism.
When a finger piece is depressed by the little finger point, that finger piece sinks from the above-described common plane and a level gap is formed between that finger piece and neighbouring finger pieces. This level gap hampers smooth shifting of the little finger point from a hitherto depressed finger piece to a neighbouring finger piece.
In order to facilitate the above-described finger shifting, one conventional key mechanism further includes, as later described in more detail, one or more rotatable rollers each arranged in a recess formed in a rim portion of a finger piece adjacent to the neighbouring finger piece. Though rotation of the roller somewhat mitigates difficulty in finger shifting, this construction cannot fully eliminate undesirable hindrance to smooth finger shifting.
The other conventional key mechanism includes modifications in design of a rim portion of a finger piece adjacent to a neighbouring finger piece. However, this modifications result in complicated constructions of the finger pieces which are naturally disadvantageous in economy.
The little finger point is generally shifted very quickly from piece to piece on the key mechanism without the player watching the operating hand. Therefore, the little finger point may accidentally drops off the key mechanism as a result of quick shifting.
In the conventional key mechanism, no countermeasure is employed in order to effectively prevent such a finger point dropping off the key mechanism.